Simon Dumont: World Traveler and World Class Freeskier

We’re just now getting the full scope of everything Simon Dumont got up to last year, now that his footage for Riley Poor’s Transitions, Poor Boyz Productions’ Every Day Is Saturday, and Matchstick Productions’. In Deep has been unleashed on the world (as if winning the Winter Dew Tour event at Mount Snow and finishing 2nd overall on the inaugural Winter Dew Tour weren’t big enough). So, as we look forward to the start of the 2009-2010 Winter Dew Tour and the first event at Breckenridge December 17-20, near the Summit County home where he occasionally hangs his hat these days, it comes as little surprise to hear that he’s been at it for most of the off-season, too. We caught up with Dumont in between early-season runs through the terrain parks at Keystone and Breckenridge, where he’s warming up for another big year.

Fill us in: Last we heard from you on this side of the hemisphere you were throwing down in the Superpipe at Mammoth in May. I know you spent some of the off-season on the other side of the world.

Believe it or not, I actually took a vacation for myself down to South America and didn’t even bring skis. It was nice: I haven’t been able to do that in a while. I came back to the U.S. and checked out Summer X Games, then went back down to South America to ski for a week with Oakley, and then I went down to ski in New Zealand for about a month. Since I’ve been back I’ve been getting into rally driving a little bit. Right now I’m just posted up in the Summit County area enjoying the early season snow and getting to every mountain I can get my skis on.

What are you looking forward to this season?

Dew Tour and X Games are the big ones. I’m really psyched on how the Dew Tour came in last year and I’m looking forward to more, and X Games added a global event in Europe this year so I’m going to check that out, too. Other than that just skiing a bunch, shooting as much as I can, trying to grow the sport as big as I can.

What brought you out to Colorado to set up home? I know you’re still sponsored by Sunday River back home in Maine. Are you a full-on Colorado transplant now?

I love Boulder, I love Denver, and I love it up here in Summit County. For early season, this place is unstoppable. It gets cold up here super quick so they’re blowing snow a lot, there’s always rails and stuff set up, Woodward’s here now… I can give lots of good reasons, but the real truth is I’ve got a girlfriend in Colorado now. Guilty as charged.

What’s the word on Woodward at Copper now that it’s fully operational? How much do you think it’s going to impact your the sport?

I talked to some of the guys while they were building it, gave them some input, and I think they did a really good job over there: A really great foam pit, a lot of tramps, a really unique setup. It’s hard to say, but given what Woodward’s done for other action sports, I think it’s going to be huge. It’s a lot of fun: I think as more and more guys start getting into the foam pits and stuff we’re going to see another huge explosion in the progress of our sport

How do you wrap your brain around the level of progress in freeskiing these days? How do you keep up with what everyone else is doing and keep pushing it yourself?

Action sports in general just progress so quickly but freeskiing in particular has just been crazy, and it keeps getting crazier and crazier. You don’t even know what to expect year to year: The skis keep getting better, the terrain keeps getting bigger, the tricks are insane… There’s so many people pushing it right now it’s really exciting. The best anyone can do is to just keep pushing it and try to make sure you get your feet back under you.

You must be stoked to get to have the first Winter Dew Tour stop at Breck, near you place.

Oh, absolutely. Breck’s always been nice to me and they always rise to the challenge and put up a good venue. Mostly I’m looking forward to being able to sleep at my own house a couple more nights during the season. That doesn’t happen so often lately.

Obviously you came out hard last year on the Dew Tour, winning one event and taking second overall. Now that the inaugural season’s in the bag, what do you make of it all?

I think the main thing Dew Tour did was take some of the pressure off X Games for everybody by adding some new events and making freeskiing competition into more of a season long thing instead of just a one-off event. I love the X Games but our sport really needed to grow, and the Dew Tour has helped a ton. I’m really impressed with how they came in and did it up for the first year and I’m stoked to be back at it.